The Warrior and The Dragon
by missselkie
Summary: Toothless is one of the most feared warriors to ever live. He moves silently, deadly like a wraith in the night. Enemies and allies alike fear him, some even dispute his existence. He thought he was resigned to a life of loneliness and violence. But it seems the gods had different plans for him...in the form of a small, plain looking dragon. (Role reversal AU)
1. The Downed Dragon

Toothless groaned. Dizzyingly, his eyes cracked open. A bright robins egg blue sky made his retina's burn from the brightness. Ignoring the feeling of throwing up building up in his gut, he attempted to sit up. His head only pounded harder behind his eyes. His teeth quickly snapped together in pain. As he caught his breath, a distant roar hit his slightly ringing ears.

He momentarily forgot about his pain, looking around quickly. A forest...the smell of pine carried on the wind. Just over the treetops were wisps of grey smoke, contrasted against the startlingly bright blue sky. Right. There was a dragon attack last night. Toothless and a few of his comrades had been chasing after a vast red dragon, that had managed to grab two large clawfuls of sheep. He remembered crashing through the woods, then hearing something behind him.

It had darted from the trees, only when the others ran ahead. The smaller dragon had roared in surprise then attempted to fly after the larger red dragon. He had aimed his bow at it, squinting through the thick darkness and black smoke. The shot seemed to have hit true, if the shriek of pain was anything to go by.

….Then why was he on the ground with a splitting headache?

The thick unyielding oak branch above him seemed to hold the answer. Some of the bark had even peeled from the impact of the warriors skull. Toothless sighed. Now he remembered. He was so focused on getting to his prey, he had ran straight into the tree. And since he wasn't waking up in a healers hut, this probably meant no one had come upon his passed out body. Thank the gods. He had an image to protect. Dusting off himself as he swayed to his feet, he heard the hollow, distant roar. It sounded like the howl of a lonely wolf. That was probably the beast that tried to jump him last night. With a grumble, he slid his emergency dagger from its sheath on his boot.

Trudging through the spongy forest floor proved less disastrous than the night before. All he really had to do was follow the dumb dragons call for help. But if he had been doing it all night, he had no hope now. Dragons were selfish and cruel. They would never turn back to save another. It was hopeless. While Toothless wasn't one for killing cornered creatures (he rather hunt it down instead) this creature has caused him plenty of pain. Plus, the weak calls were starting to get annoying.

It didn't take him long to come upon the pathetic creature. Though, he did stop short. It was...it was so _small. _It was about the size of a rather large housecat, but all wrapped up in a bola and shrunken in on itself it looked like a _hatchling. _It had stilled, and was quiet now. Its cries had stopped as soon as Toothless's steps became within its hearing range. Its eyes were closed tightly, and Toothless could see its body quivering.

He shook off his hesitance and flipped the dragon with his boot. Its neck and stomach vulnerable, he kneeled to finish it off. As he brought his hand back, he made a horrible mistake.

He looked into its eyes.

Wide forest green eyes stared at him. Reptilian pupils were wide and black, betraying a horrified expression Toothless had seen on many of his comrades faces. They looked almost glassy with tears- which made no sense, dragons couldn't cry. But the sheer human emotion in this small dragons face...Toothless made the horrible connection to an afraid child. In a horrifying rush of emotions, Toothless found himself deflate. His dagger rested against his head, and he took in a deep breath through his nose.

'_What am I doing?'_ A part of him screamed. He tightened his grip on the dagger, eyes opening in a small fit of rage. He can't go soft! He's the _Nightfury_! The most terrifying warrior in the archipelago! How dare this dragon manipulate him! He looked to the runts eyes again, meaning to meet the soft expression with his anger. Instead, he saw the small dragon notice his change in demeanor. It held his gaze for a moment, before letting out a sad, small sound and closing its eyes tightly. Its head met the ground as it just...gave up.

His irrational anger subsided, like a storm cloud blowing out into nothing. He cursed, but it was not backed by much venom. '_...what am I doing.."_ He repeated in his head, in a more guilt ridden way.

"Gods be damned." He growled, then suddenly started cutting ropes. With each snap, the dragon's body stiffened. As he cut the final rope, it sprung up and pounced onto Toothless's chest. He was knocked roughly onto the ground, his dagger scattering away over the dirt.

_Ah. _So this is what he gets for being weak. Death. At the claws of such a small, pitiful creature. He would much more rather it be the colossal red dragon, at least there was some honour there. Expecting teeth locked in his throat, he was surprised when instead his ears rung with a loud, shrill roar right in his face. Then, as quickly as it had brought him down, it bolted away. It spread it's green wings to fly away, but with another panicked roar it dipped the wrong way.

Toothless blinked a few times. Getting up, he grabbed his dagger. He then proceeded to almost faint, but caught himself. He blamed his dehydration and obviously small concussion. Deciding to forget this ever happened, he unsteadily walked back home.


	2. Something Human

When he arrived to the small village, people did the usual. They hushed their conversations, backed into corners, avoided eye contact. The rugged young man stomped past the fisherman and farmers shying away. He scoffed to himself and headed right for the healers hut. With more force than necessary, he slammed the door open. The two inhabitants inside glanced up.

"Hookfang owes me twenty copper." Stormfly smirked. Toothless barely spared her a glance as he grabbed a pain relieving herb to chew on, not asking for any permission from the elderly healer. She just looked on in disdain and continued wrapping Stormfly's head. Stormfly just chuckled at his cold silence, grumbling an 'Ouch!' when the healer smacked her for moving too much. Stormfly was...interesting. She had a half shaved head, and a wild hairstyle. Vibrant cord and yarn of blue, yellow, and dark purple were braided and weaved in with her blonde hair. She was quite the site. And this is without her belt of throwing knives, all decorated in more vibrant colours and always deadly sharp.

"We all thought you died, or deserted us. Well, I didn't. I'm not sure why Hookfang was so keen on spreading that obvious lie." Stormfly smirked, picking something from her teeth with a knife. She stood as Toothless made for the door. "He seemed happy for once, since you were presumed dead for a bit there." She continued, looking amused. Toothless barely reacted, only rolling his eyes. He had no idea why the other mercenary had such a problem with him. He assumed jealousy. Stormfly walked with him through the half burned village to it's great hall.

"You outta get your pay from the Queen." Stormfly hummed. She waved at the others, who looked surprised/pale faced that yes, the Nightfury was still alive. Toothless felt like scoffing. How was this such a surprise? He thought he was a legend. Legends never die.

Hookfang looked visibly disappointed. His shoulders- decorated with vibrant red dragon scales- went down as his nose wrinkled. He turned, not waiting for the rest of the mercenaries. Meatlug (a short, kind looking woman) nervously clasped her hands at the tension.

"Let's ah...just go in and have some dinner, okay?" She smiled, following after Hookfang. The twins, Barf and Belch, both chuckled. They followed her anyways. She seemed to have taken to mothering them this past week they were all brought together. It seemed to be working.

As the armoured mercenaries entered, local warriors scowled and children looked in awe at the professional dragon hunters. It was hard not to. All together, they looked like they were right from the fables of colourful, skilled warriors. Each from a different part of the Archipelago, all brought together for the same gold...The Red Queen's gold. However, right now, there was only one of her underlings. He rushed forward and gave them each a hefty bag of gold. Toothless was presented with one quite a bit bigger than the others, but it was to be expected. After all, his skills were unmatched and as said before, legendary.

He wanted to feel pride...the smugness he often wore before when presented with gold. Instead, all he could think about was that damn dragon.

The whole experience this morning had been so drastically different than any before. And as he picked at his food, in a far lone corner of the hall, it suddenly hit him.

_That was the first dragon he hadn't killed._

It was well known that any beast or man The Nightfury laid his eyes on would be dead. He never missed. But this time...it had flown free. He had freed it with his own two hands. He stared at his palms. Charred, scarred, and calloused. The very ones that had cut the small dragon free. But why? Dragons feel nothing. They're ferocious monsters that do nothing but pillage and destroy. Yet, he had seen something in that dragons eyes. Something _human._

As Hookfang loudly bragged about the gruesome ways he had dispatched dragons the previous night to wide eyed women, Toothless frowned.

"There it lay! Downed by yours truly!"

He pushed the now cold chicken around some more on his plate.

"Weak and alone, yet furious and enraged!"

Toothless felt himself take a deep breath.

"I plunged my sword right into its neck, no mercy for the monster that had terrorized your people-"

He stood abruptly, the screech of the wooden chair against the stone spooking the villagers. Hookfang glared as once again, The Nightfury took his spotlight just by existing. The locals watched in wonder as on silent feet, the other man left the hall. His dark black armour almost blended into the shadows where the torches didn't reach. Even as he slammed the great doors shut, they still gaped like sheep.

Hookfang slammed his mug of mead down and clicked his tongue irritably.

-0-

"I killed every other dragon…" Toothless wondered aloud. He knelt and picked up the remnants of his bola.

"But why not _you?"_ He whispered. Tossing the rope aside, he got up and wandered through the woods. He smacked a few branches out of the way, eventually unsheathing his sword to cut through the flora. He kept his eyes peeled for a flash of emerald- or even the sad wails that woke him up so early this morning. Nothing but the twinkling choir of many bird calls met his ears, though. He assumed, with some disappointment, that the small thing was long gone. He didn't blame it. Toothless wasn't sure why he was searching for it. Did he want a rematch? Did he want to kill it? His heart wasn't pounding, and adrenaline seemed stagnant. He didn't really _feel _like he was hunting it.

He found himself at the edge of a drop off into a sizeable cove. A small waterfall offered the warble of crystalline water in the background. Toothless let out a long sigh.

"Well this was dumb." He muttered to himself, moving to turn back. A sudden harsh gust of wind and the scrabble of claws burst the tranquil of the forest. A frustrated yelp followed, then a crash and the crack of pebbles and stones hitting the ground. Toothless dived to the ground, peering over the lip of the coves side.

There was the dragon! It shook itself clean of dirt as best as it could, then crooned miserably and swooped at the opposite wall of the cove. It tried clawing it's best to freedom, but eventually ended up failing and falling to the ground. Toothless raised an eyebrow. He watched, enraptured as the small dragon limped over to the small pond. It chuffed and pounced into the water, only to come back up empty handed. The little thing seemed even more frustrated. Eventually it just plopped onto the ground, paws over its face.

Toothless at first felt bitter that such a pathetic creature had bested him...but it soon faded. Just watching it struggle and pace like an annoyed cat made him feel oddly bad for the dragon.

"Why don't you just...fly away?" Toothless muttered, as the dragon made another attempt at flying out of the cove. As it slid into the hard ground again, Toothless finally noticed an oddity. His back left leg. It looked mangled. The poor thing's leg was at an awkward, unnatural angle, hanging limply and useless. Toothless knew it was horribly broken, and by the pained bays the dragon let out when it put weight on it, he was right.

It was his fault. He felt a foreign feeling of guilt once again, building in the back of his head like a headache. Toothless was a dragon killer sure, but he always did things quickly, quietly, and usually painlessly. Most often the dragons didn't know what hit them. He never purposely made them suffer before death. But here he was, watching this doomed creature drag itself back to the pond. His heart seized at the sight, as it tried to catch the fish again.

He leaned forward a bit, to try and see the full extent of the injury. His foot bumped a few loose stones though- sending a shower of them down into the cove. He winced at the large sound, then noticed the small dragon. He had shot to his feet, little ear flap things up straight and tail lashing anxiously. Toothless met his eyes for a few moments- before dashing off. He didn't want to stress it out too much.

_Wait, what? _Why does he care? Toothless felt frustration build in him again. This empathy was dangerous. He had to stop thinking about it like some dog! Yet, his mind was already racing with ways to help it's leg. Gods forgive him, it seems he's been possessed. While he venomously declared not to return, deep down he knew he would be back. Maybe with some willow bark or sage along with him. Could he make a dragon sized brace?

With a strangled, angry yell, he quickened his pace. This was too weird for him. But the frightened look on that dragons face did something to him. Maybe it was a curse? Or maybe he had just seen something...human within those eyes that he couldn't explain. There was no harm in investigating this, right? Maybe the dragon really was a hatchling, and that's why it was so harmless looking. Maybe not all dragons were so cruel…?

He silenced that radical thought. He just...was repaying a favour. The dragon spared him, so he'll spare it. For an extended period of time. Yeah.

He was so hooped.


End file.
